Making my desktops minimalist...

[DaveinJapan]

Hi all,

I'm trying to make my desktops totally bare, with nothing but a grey screen...

So far, I've hidden the dock and put all the other usual desktop crap in a folder in "documents".

So, I'm left with the HD icon and the upper tool bar, is there any way to hide either of these?

One other thing, for some reason when I play video with the VLC player, the mouse stays onscreen and doesn't disappear...is there any way to make the mouse go away when not in use?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mad jew]

If you go to the Finder's preferences there should be a check box you can untick to get rid of the hard disk.

As for the other problems, my curser disappears in VLC so I can't help, sorry. And I have no idea how to hide the upper tool bar (menu bar?).

 

[wPod]

If you go to the Finder's preferences there should be a check box you can untick to get rid of the hard disk.

also in the same location you can check to display (or not display) CDs or any other external disk you might mount. As for the tool bar i have never heard of a way to hide it. i know you can in windows, so maybe there is a way somewhere out there.

 

[DaveinJapan]

Cool, thanks! If I can't hide the toolbar, I suppose I could live with it...It's just that when I watch a smaller sized video I thought it would be cool to have ONLY the video screen on there.

Here's another question, sometimes when I download stuff I get a folder on the desktop called "incomplete" which contains the not yet downloaded files. Is there anyway to reroute the path of that folder (like, into "documents" with the other stuff), so it too doesn't have to be seen when my desktop is in "minimal" mode?

 

[mad jew]

What are you using to download? Most programs will let you save to a specific location, such as Documents, but the Desktop is the default.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

^^^ I believe that changing the preference for download location in whatever programs you are downloading from SHOULD take care of this issue.

 

[ITASOR]

Cool, thanks! If I can't hide the toolbar, I suppose I could live with it...It's just that when I watch a smaller sized video I thought it would be cool to have ONLY the video screen on there.

Here's another question, sometimes when I download stuff I get a folder on the desktop called "incomplete" which contains the not yet downloaded files. Is there anyway to reroute the path of that folder (like, into "documents" with the other stuff), so it too doesn't have to be seen when my desktop is in "minimal" mode?

hehehehe.....Limewire does that. And I can't figure out how to change the location of it either.

 

[pulsewidth947]

I use limewire, and my incomplete downloads folder is not on my desktop.

I have all my folders in ~/documents/downloads/ helps keep stuff nice and tidy.

 

[DaveinJapan]

Anyone else have any idea how to kill the menu bar?

Or the mouse?

 

[matticus008]

Anyone else have any idea how to kill the menu bar?

Or the mouse?

The menu bar has to stay. It contains the File Menu and so on for applications, so if you have an application running, the menu bar is there (even if it's just the requisite Finder). You could kill Finder, but then your computer wouldn't be very useful.

Like someone else said, the mouse should disappear. If it doesn't, you can just put it in the lower right-hand corner (which should not be set as a hot corner unless it's the "disable screen saver" one). It will be out of the way, aside from a pixel or two. But it really should go away on its own if you leave it in the video overlay window. You could also check the Finder and other preferences to make sure that the mouse is set to disappear while typing (although this shouldn't really affect the video overlay, I think).

 

[jeremy.king]

You could get real fancy and code your own app to run in Kiosk Mode.

http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn2002/tn2062.html

 

[20rogersc]

I've just found this pic and thought it might help.

It shoes a hidden menu bar and has a link to whatever he uses to do it, MenuShade I think.

Find it here

Hope this helps

::20ROGERSC::